The battle for the best Bak Chor Mee at Bedok Blk 85 Fengshan Market & Food Centre is very similar to the battle for the best Nasi Lemak at Changi Village Hawker Centre.

Xing Ji Ruo Cuo Mian(stall no 7 ) and Seng Hiang Food Stall(stall no 8 ) at Fengshan Market & Food Centre in particular are just like International Food Stall and Mizzy’s Corner at Changi Village. They are not only selling similar food and having similar taste, they are also operating very close to each other in the market.

There are even rumours that the 2 Bak Chor Mee stalls at Fengshan Market & Food Centre have the same suppliers for their ingredients and also, when one stall runs out of ingredients, they just go to the other stall to borrow. There are also rumours that International Food Stall and Mizzy’s Corner borrow chicken wings from each other when the need comes. If that’s the case, it definitely make people in the queue look silly since they can buy the same thing without queueing at the other stall.

When I was there, Seng Hiang Food Stall(the one beside no 7 the original stall) definitely had a shorter queue and the waiting time was only 5 mins while Xing Ji tooked almost 20 mins. Seng Hiang’s Bak Chor Mee is very very similar to Xing Ji’s Bak Chor Mee. I am suspecting they are not only sharing the same suppliers for ingredients but their recipes too. From the soup to the bak chor(minced meat) to the noodles, it was 99% similar. My bowl of Bak Chor Mee was as slurpy good as the bowl from Xing Ji. The only slight difference is that the noodles don’t seem to be as QQ aka al dente, but I can understand that it’s not possible to get the same level of QQness all the time.

Seng Hiang Food Stall’s Bak Chor Mee

Another thing is Seng Hiang Food Stall has a dry version though I don’t recommend you to try it if you’re coming all the way from Jurong because of the simple fact that the dry version is not what Bedok’s Bak Chor Mee is all about.

All in all, the differences if any, are quite negligible. For $2.50, you get the same bowl of slurpy good noodles that has no dumplings but 5 meatballs. So if at Bedok Blk 85 Fengshan Market & Food Centre, you’re wondering which stall to order your Bak Chor Mee from, go to no 7(Xing Ji Ruo Cuo Mian) if you care about eating from the original stall or go to no 8(Seng Hiang Food Stall) if you care about having a shorter waiting time.

Price: $2.50

Recommendation: $2.50 soup version though they have dried ones too but order at your own risk because I was told lesser than 1% of the customers eat the dry version there.

Conclusion: Bowl of Bak Chor mee was shiokadodoly similar to stall no 7(the original stall). For some reasons, most people still head to no 7. Indeed in the past, whenever my friends asked me which one should they order from, I always point to no 7. But you’ll be surprised that when I went around the market talking to other hawkers, a few of them told me they prefer no 8 though I’m suspecting that they just dread the long waiting time which indeed looks quite unnecessary.

Likes: Nice balance of the noodles, minced meat and soup were having similar hits on my umami as those I had from stall no 7(Xing Ji Ruo Cuo Mian).

Dislikes: Noodles seemed not as spongy compared to stall no 7 but the fantastic combination of the soup and minced meat more than make up for that lack of slight QQness.

Both stalls has same boss, thats why same taste. There are 2 shifts of cook. From 5pm to 10pm, and from 10pm to 4am. I receommend go before 10pm as the cook is better.

Posted September 7, 2009

Alfred says:

How you know they have the same boss?

Posted September 7, 2009

SH says:

I usually order from this stall. The soup is mre fragrant.

Posted September 14, 2009

Andy1984 says:

I stay near the hawker center over there and for what i know is Seng hiang BCM is the original source. Xing ji BCM started selling BCM with mushroom and pig liver… Then theres this period where business went real bad for them, they close down temporary then when they re-operate, they started selling the stuff Seng xiang BCM is selling, just to clarify, nothing else

Posted January 6, 2010

Alfred says:

Hmmm you’re talking about the corner stall right? I am sure it was a ham chin peng stall in the past though..

Posted January 10, 2010

Lian Keat says:

Seng hiang bcm is THE original and the nicer one,the xing ji bcm copied seng hiang. And they do not have the same boss,most ppl think that seng hiang is nicest and if u go at dinner time on weekends,there will be a long queue ,and the service attitude of xing ji ia very bad.

Posted March 24, 2010

Agnes says:

yes, i also stayed at bedok for 27 years. At first, there is an old grandpa selling you char kuey, and his elder son take over the stall and starts selling BCM. Initially, Xingji does not use meatballs, they only put mince meat inside BCM, bcos, their method is pass down from their father/grandpa (i’m not sure), when their father.grandpa is selling kok kok mee. It’s seng hiang who starts the trend by selling BCM with Meatballs. Then, Xingji copy seng hiang and starts adding meatball inside because their business drops as alot of customers of seng hiang likes the meatball version. I hate going to Xingji as they are not friendly at all, bad attitude! I once ordered from them, and ask them how long i have to wait, that tall dark lady tell me:”another 45 mins! can wait wait, cannot wait go next stall!” I was super piss off and thinking that Seng hiang also have lots of queues, what makes her think that their business is better than seng hiang’s that they have to “refer” their customers to next stall?? From then, i never patronise Xingji…just not worth it, not even if they drop their price to $1 per bowl, let to say $2.50 per bowl